More Final Fantasy XII news

If you haven’t noticed by now, I’m quite the Final Fantasy fan so I will most likely be posting news that I hear from it when I get the chance. This is from a recent interview from Motomu Toriyama.

“Crystals have always been standard fare in Final Fantasy, but in XIII they aren’t just stones. Some of them are benevolent life-bringing…creatures, one might say, while others are more sinister. The game world is a binary one in which humanity wouldn’t survive save for the good crystals. “[They] think about what sort of environment would be appropriate for [humans] and create that space, which is a Cocoon,” elaborated Toriyama. Outside that safe haven is Pulse, where monsters roam and bad crystals make trouble. Anyone under the influence of an “alien substance” created in Pulse (which have a name that is still under wraps) is shipped out to a quarantine.

Our heroine is still rather mysterious. She calls herself Lightening, but keeps her real name secret. Toriyama didn’t want to give much away, saying only, “Why she doesn’t tell her real name will be revealed in the plot.”

“Since it’s on the Playstation 3 we’ve got our eye on new presentation. The foundation is based on active-time battles, but the waiting time until you choose a command is gone for the most part. The image we presented to the public rushing into a real time battle with that kind of force we want to continue that overflowing feeling of tension that RPGs up to now haven’t had.” The most surprising innovation, however, is that summons are now going to be part mecha and play an expanded role of more than just battle support. “The treatment of summons beasts has changed quite a bit,” Toriyama revealed, “The fact that the players can summon will not change, but what happens after that will be something totally different.” The example they discussed was Shiva, who can transform into a motorcycle. Toriyama hinted that he thinks “it might be the case” that you can ride it during a fight.